Today's News

Staunton River’s baseball team headed to Lord Botetourt while the Eagle softballers got a visit from the Lady Lords.
In 13 innings of ball, though, not a single River runner made it home.
In softball, the Bots topped the Lady Eagles, 13-0. In baseball, it was the Cavs winning, 5-0.
It was an inauspicious Blue Ridge opener for each of the River crews, vying in a district that is widely considered to be one of the best at the AA level.
The Lady Eagles were done in by a combination of too much Sam and not enough slam.

Less than one percent. That’s how much of the game remained when Liberty saw its hopes dashed.
To be precise, 24 seconds were left in a contest that the Minutemen seemed to have in hand, leading 4-3.
That’s when Liberty was called for a handball in the 18-yard box.
Rustburg’s Chris Skarpenes converted the resulting penalty kick to push the game into overtime.
Skarpenes had converted an earlier handball call against the Minutemen into a tally that tied the match at two-apiece.
In overtime, Skarpenes got his fourth goal of the evening with the game-winner.

It took nine innings, but Staunton River earned a 6-5 victory over Liberty in softball action Monday night, completing a season sweep for the Golden Eagles over the Lady Minutemen.
“It was a good, well-played game by both teams,” noted SR Coach Donald Dellis. “That was a big win for us.”
Utilizing international rules in the ninth inning, which places a runner on second base, River plated two runs while Liberty scored one, breaking the 4-4 tie.
“It’s always good to beat your county rival,” Dellis stated. “We were fortunate to beat them twice this year.”

Jefferson Forest continued its march through the Seminole, manhandling Heritage.
The 6-0 score gave the Cavs an overall record of 6-0 and a 4-0 mark in Seminole District play.
Marco Kempf led the Cavaliers, scoring a pair of goals and adding an assist.
Kempf drew first blood when he pounced on a blocked shot of teammate Devin Jones and blistered a shot past Pioneer keeper J.J. Johnson.
A pass from Kempf found Doug Dickerson all by his lonesome, hanging around the Pioneer net. Dickerson converted for a 2-0 JF lead going into the halftime intermission.

That was a good one.
Liberty and Jefferson Forest put on a donnybrook of a softball game on Wednesday night. The Lady Cavs prevailed, 6-2, though they didn’t have an easy time of it.
Alexis Brown was the gal o’ the game, pitching the full seven innings for JF. The smokin’ sophomore looked to be in mid-season form. She faced only four more batters than the 21-batter minimum.
Brown rang up 10 strikeouts, while allowing only four hits and a single walk. Both of Liberty’s runs were earned.

One team showed that it will always give you your money’s worth.
The other showed that it has a knack for sticking around.
In a game in which Jefferson Forest topped Liberty 10-7, both teams played to their stereotypes.
Forest, though unbeaten, has yet to play a boring game.
Liberty, down 10-1 after three innings, gave the Cavs pause with a five-run rally in the seventh.
This one had the look of a mercy-rule game.
After the teams opened the first tied 1-1, the JF offense really came to life.
Cal Hodgert drew a base on balls. He was followed by a Bryan Miller single.

“Skateboarding is not a crime.”
These were the words on a bumper sticker affixed to my younger brother’s skateboard. I laughed at the sticker.
“How ridiculous!” I said. “Who said skateboarding was a crime?”
It was funny, until the day my father actually received a call from the police station.
“Are you Tom Vickery, the father of Bob Vickery?” The policeman stated in a deep voice.
“Why?” My father replied wearily. There were four of us boys, and my dad replied wearily a lot in those days.